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Association between smoking during radiotherapy and prognosis in head and neck cancer: A follow‐up study
Author(s) -
Browman George P.,
Mohide E. Ann,
Willan Andrew,
Hodson Ian,
Wong Gene,
Grimard Laval,
MacKenzie Robert G.,
ElSayed Samy,
Dunn Edward,
Farrell Sylvia
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.10168
Subject(s) - medicine , cotinine , head and neck cancer , confounding , radiation therapy , proportional hazards model , logistic regression , stage (stratigraphy) , oncology , cohort , cohort study , nicotine , paleontology , biology
Background. The study objective was to confirm a previous finding that patients with stage III/IV squamous head and neck cancer (SHNC) who smoke during radiotherapy (RT) experience reduced survival. Methods. An observational cohort study. Patients' smoking status was assessed weekly by questionnaire plus blood cotinine. Patients were assessed every 3 to 4 months for survival. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards analyses were used to detect the independent contribution of smoking on survival. Results. Of 148 patients, 113 smoked during RT. Blood cotinine and smoking questionnaire responses were highly correlated (Spearman R = .69; p < .0005). Abstainers and very light smokers experienced better survival than light, moderate, and heavy smokers (median, 42 vs 29 months; p = .07). Tumor and nodal status and years smoked were the most important prognostic factors. Smoking during RT was not an independent predictor of survival, but baseline smoking status was ( p = .016). Conclusion. Smoking status should be documented in all future trials of RT in SHNC to allow for pooled analyses with sufficient power to address this question. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 24: 1031–1037, 2002